A Wildflower for Wednesday

 Although I have had some wonderful gardeners in my family, the gene did skip a generation coming to me.  My mother has never been overly interested in gardening (though certainly supportive of my efforts).  However, she has always been fascinated by the wild plants and animals to be found in the various place we lived.

This has had its influence on me too.  I have been known to indulge in the dubious (from a gardening perspective) practice of leaving a wildling to grow "to find out what it is".  Generally, it was not something to be recommended for a civilized garden!

This, though, is a different case.  I know that the plant in question is Pectis papposa, familiarly named Chinchweed.  It is an annual which grows on disturbed sites here in the Sonoran desert.  It blooms in late summer/early autumn, and the garden site had plenty of it when I began clearing.  And frankly, I am playing with litte Pectis papposa.

I may regret it later, but I have not found it a difficult plant to remove, unlike some of the other pests which grow around here!  I am using it as a temporary groundcover in areas where it is arriving as the season progresses.  In a few months it will dry out and blow away - or at least that was the pattern last year.  It's taking a bit of a chance, I know, letting it settle in under a rose bush, in this case "The Alnwick Rose".

It has a nice scent to the leaves: a fresh herbal scent that still somehow warns "Don't eat me."  If I were a horse or cow - or a rabbit, perhaps - I would certainly leave it alone.  Our neighborhood, which consists largely of open desert, was full of this fragrance during a few weeks last autumn.

Well, we shall see whether this is a Bad Mistake or an Underused Native Annual.   Its friendly colours and airy habit are rather cheering in the oppressive moods of August.  So I hope it will be the latter!

Weather Diary: Hazy; High yesterday: 95 F (35 C)/Low: 82 F (28 C)